I want to make another comment on Duncan. He is one of the smartest players to ever play. What makes me upset at times, is he, Shaq and even Wade will throw the ball at the basket and go crashing in for the tip in or rebound. Do not get me wrong, all 3 of these players are great but they know they can get away with some charging and in the past we have Dampier and no one else. Everybody was scarred because Shaq and Duncan would run you over. Last year Diop stood up to him, Dampier did and even Dirk blocked out and made Duncan charge into him.
This was a big reason we beat them and Duncan had a great series but Diop had a huge block and a huge rebound to beat them and Dirk the great offensive play. Before overtime, Duncan had a chance to win it and he should have charged over us and tried for a lay up and got two free throws to win it but Damp, Dirk and Diop had played physical and challenged him, so he settled for a jump shot.
Last year this team changed on defense. Now, not just Howard plays defense. No one on our team plays scarred like Van Horn anymore. If you play scarred and with fear you just can't get past Duncan or Shaq and the Piston team but Avery has changed that and even Dirk is tough now.
Duncan can't just throw the ball up off the rim and charge in and get it anymore because we have guys like Damp, Diop, Dirk, Croshere, George and Howard standing under the goal blocking out. Ginobili is great at doing that also but he got charges on him last year and Parker kept getting charges on him by Harris. Harris played him great. This was all Avery and defense. This is what can and will beat the Spurs, not Phx offense.
We have a player that is great shooting or throwing off the rim and flying past people and getting the rebound and putting it back in. That is Howard. He out works people.
We are not at our best now but i feel we are coasting some and Avery is letting them where we won't get hurt.
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